Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean is a franchise
born from an amusement park ride, and has the same dedication to accuracy in
the portrayal of its subject. Dedicated more to the supernatural and fantasy
elements than an accurate depiction of pirates, these films failed to
capitalize upon the more adult aspects of the men who inspired myths. While “Black
Sails” is not entirely born from truth, it embraces realism and stories about
actual pirates in the telling of a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.” The first couple of seasons were slow
to pick up the pace, leaving some to complain about the numerous scenes of
dialogue and minimal activity at sea, but season four is a brutal and emotional
resolution to the running narratives from the three before. This means plenty
of action and a number of surprising deaths, all leading to an ending that blends
seamlessly into the classic work of literature.

“Black Sails” ultimately
bleeds into “Treasure Island,” a fictional
work, while adding in new fictional characters and the history of some
real-life pirates as well. This complex blend of fact, fiction, and classic
literature adds layers of nuance to a show that also holds up as a stand-alone
piece of entertainment. While often extremely violent, the series is ultimately
driven by the characters. The first few seasons slowly allow us to get to know
them more intimately, so that the last couple of seasons are that much more
impactful. This final season reduces the excessive sex and nudity that plagued
some of the earlier seasons (in what seemed to be a blatant attempt to imitate
an exploitative formula that has worked for “Game of Thrones”), but increases
much of the brutal pirate violence.

This violence
begins from the very first episodes of the season, as the third ended as
Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and Long John Silver (Luke Arnold) saw their ship
brought down by a trap while attempting to take back Nassau from the British. The British are led
by the ruthless Woodes Rogers (Luke Roberts) and his bride, Nassau’s own backstabbing Eleanor Guthrie
(Hannah New). Blackbeard (Ray Stevenson), Rackham (Toby Schmitz), and Anne
Bonny (Clara Paget) are able to lure Rogers
away, so that Flint
and Silver are able to escape, with their lives if not their ship. This opens
up Nassau to further invasion and politics,
though none are prepared for the brutal measures that Rogers will take in order to win.

It isn’t just
the violence from the swashbuckling fight scenes that make this the most brutal
season of “Black Sails” yet. In order to garner even more sympathy for the
pirate characters we have grown to care about over the first three seasons, the
British and Spanish soldiers hunting them are portrayed to be even crueler than
the criminals they hunt. A few torture sequences involving fan favorites may
push viewers to the same place as “The Walking Dead” did this last season. No
character is safe from death, save the ones we know to exist in “Treasure Island.”

The scale of the
production for “Black Sails” would be impressive on a big screen, not to
mention for a television series. Gone are the model-types cast in Disney’s
pirate franchise. These men look as though they have lived years at sea, with
excellent costumes and production design to enhance the feeling that you are
experiencing all of the gritty details of a pirate’s life. The Blu-ray release
of season four comes with two featurettes that go into detail about the efforts
made in order to recreate this world as accurately as possible. There are also
three roundtables: “Women in Piracy,” “The Legends of Treasure Island,” and
“Fearless Fans.” Along with including the season’s ten episodes on three
Blu-ray discs, a Digital HD copy is also included with the purchase.